View source for Thomas Secker

{{Short description|Archbishop of Canterbury from 1758 to 1768}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox Christian leader 
| honorific-prefix = {{pre-nominal styles|size=100%|MRevd|&RHPC}}
| name = Thomas Secker
| honorific-suffix = 
| archbishop_of = [[Archbishop of Canterbury]]
| image = AbpThomasSecker.jpg
| imagesize = 
| alt = 
| caption = Portrait by [[Joshua Reynolds]]
| province = 
| diocese = 
| see = 
| enthroned = 1758
| ended = 1768
| predecessor = [[Matthew Hutton, Archbishop of Canterbury|Matthew Hutton]]
| successor = [[Frederick Cornwallis]]
| ordination = 
| consecration = 
| other_post = [[Bishop of Bristol]] (1735–1737)<br/>[[Bishop of Oxford]] (1737–1758)
| birth_name = 
| birth_date = {{birth date|1693|9|21|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Sibthorpe]], Nottinghamshire
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1768|8|3|1693|9|21|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Lambeth Palace]], London
| buried = Lambeth
| nationality = English
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| alma_mater = [[Leiden University]]<br/>[[Exeter College, Oxford]]
| signature = 
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'''Thomas Secker''' (21 September 1693{{snd}}3 August 1768) was an [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] in the [[Church of England]].

==Early life and studies==
Secker was born in [[Sibthorpe]], Nottinghamshire. In 1699, he went to Richard Brown's [[Free education|free school]] in [[Chesterfield, Derbyshire|Chesterfield]], [[Derbyshire]], staying with his half-sister and her husband, Elizabeth and Richard Milnes. According to a story in the ''[[Gentleman's Magazine]]'' for 1768, Brown congratulated Secker for his successful studies by remarking, "If thou wouldst but come over to the Church, I am sure thou wouldst be a bishop."<ref>{{cite magazine |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=An Authentic Account of the Life of the late Archbishop of Canterbury |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015020066547 |magazine=[[Gentleman's Magazine]] |volume=38 |page=451 |date=October 1768 |hdl=2027/mdp.39015020066547 |access-date=30 April 2023}}</ref> Under Brown's teaching, Secker believed that he had attained a competency in Greek and Latin.

He attended [[Timothy Jollie]]'s [[dissenting academies|dissenting academy]] at [[Attercliffe]] in [[Sheffield]] from 1708, but was frustrated by Jollie's poor teaching, famously remarking that he lost his knowledge of languages and that "only the old Philosophy of the Schools was taught there: and that neither ably nor diligently. The morals also of many of the young Men were bad. I spent my time there idly & ill".<ref>Manuscript autobiography</ref> He left after one and a half years.

In 1710, he moved to London, staying in the house of the father of [[John Bowes, 1st Baron Bowes|John Bowes]], who had been one of Jollie's students and would one day become [[Lord Chancellor of Ireland]]. Whilst here, he studied geometry, conic sections, algebra, French, and [[John Locke]]'s ''[[An Essay Concerning Human Understanding]]''.

==Tewkesbury Academy and Samuel Jones==
Also boarding at Bowes's house was [[Isaac Watts]], who encouraged Secker to attend the [[Tewkesbury Academy|dissenting academy in Gloucester]] set up by [[Samuel Jones (academy tutor)|Samuel Jones]]. There Secker recovered his ability at languages, supplementing his understanding of Greek and Latin with studies in Hebrew, [[Biblical Aramaic|Chaldee]] and [[Syriac language|Syriac]]. Jones's course was also famous for his systems of [[Antiquities of the Jews|Jewish antiquities]] and logic; maths was similarly studied to a higher than usual level.

Also at Jones's [[academy]] contemporaneously with Secker were the later [[Church of England]] [[bishop]]s [[Joseph Butler]] and [[Isaac Maddox]] and also [[John Bowes (preacher)|John Bowes]]; other members included the future [[English Dissenters|dissenting leaders]] [[Samuel Chandler]], [[Jeremiah Jones (tutor)|Jeremiah Jones]] and [[Tewkesbury Academy|Vavasour Griffiths]]. In 1713, Jones moved his academy to larger premises in [[Tewkesbury]], partly financed by £200 from Secker. But Secker soon became involved with the clandestine correspondence between Butler and a Church of England cleric, [[Samuel Clarke]], concerning Clarke's ''[[Attributes of God in Christianity|A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God]]'' (1705). Secker's role was to deliver Butler's letters personally to Gloucester post office and to pick up Clarke's replies. Meanwhile, Jones had acquired a reputation as a heavy drinker and the standard of his teaching may have decreased. Both Butler and Secker left his academy shortly afterwards, Butler in February 1714 and Secker in June of the same year.

He studied [[medicine]] in London and [[Paris, France|Paris]] before receiving the [[academic degree|degree]] of [[Doctor of Medicine|MD]] from [[Leiden University]] in 1721. Upon his return to England, he entered [[Exeter College, Oxford]] and was [[Ordination|ordained]], by special letters, in 1722 from the [[Chancellor (education)|Chancellor]] of [[Oxford University]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Secker, Thomas|volume=24|page=570}}</ref>

==Career==
In 1724, he became [[Rector (ecclesiastical)|rector]] of [[Houghton-le-Spring]], [[County Durham|Durham]], resigning in 1727 on his appointment to the rectory of [[Holy Cross Church, Ryton|Holy Cross Church]], [[Ryton, Tyne and Wear|Ryton, County Durham]], and to a [[Canon (priest)|canonry]] of Durham. He became rector of [[St James's Church, Piccadilly|St James's Westminster]] in 1733 and [[Bishop of Bristol]] in 1735. About this time [[George II of Great Britain|George II]] commissioned him to arrange a reconciliation between the [[Frederick, Prince of Wales|Prince of Wales]] and himself, but the attempt was unsuccessful.<ref name="EB1911"/>

In 1737, he became the [[Bishop of Oxford]] and then the [[Dean of St Paul's|Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, London]], in 1750. On 21 April 1758, a month after the death of his predecessor, he became [[Archbishop of Canterbury]].<ref name="EB1911"/>

His advocacy of an [[Episcopal Church (United States)|American episcopate]], in connection with which he wrote the ''Answer'' to [[Jonathan Mayhew]]'s ''Observations on the Charter and Conduct of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts'' (London 1764), raised considerable opposition in England and America.<ref name="EB1911"/>

==Death, burial and legacy==
Secker died at the age of 74 at 3 August 1768 in [[Lambeth Palace]]. Church records of the adjacent medieval parish church of [[Garden Museum|St Mary-at-Lambeth]] have revealed that Secker had his viscera buried in a canister in the churchyard.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/remains-five-missing-archbishops-canterbury-found-accident/|title=How the remains of five 'missing' Archbishops of Canterbury were found by accident|work=The Telegraph|access-date=2017-05-08|language=en-GB}}</ref> Secker left a substantial bequest to [[Abigail Gawthern|Ann and Thomas Frost]] of Nottingham. After Secker died his will was disputed by Thomas Frost, and he managed to persuade the court that £11,000 intended by Secker for charity should be redirected to his family.<ref name=odndabi>Adrian Henstock, 'Gawthern, Abigail Anna (1757–1822)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/47589, accessed 8 May 2017]</ref>

== Works ==
His principal work was ''Lectures on the Catechism of the Church of England'' (London, 1769).

''A sermon preach'd before the University of Oxford, at St. Mary's, on Act Sunday in the afternoon'', 1733, 1734<br />
''A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord-Mayor, the Court of Aldermen, the sheriffs, and the governors of the several hospitals of the City of London [...]'', 1738<br />
''A sermon preached before the House of Lords'', 1739<br />
''A sermon preached at King's Street chapel, in the parish of St James'', 1741<br />
''A sermon preached before the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts'', 1741, 1752<br />
''A sermon preached in the parish-church of Christ-Church, London'', 1743<br />
''A sermon preached on occasion of the present rebellion in Scotland'', 1745<br />
''A sermon preached before the governors of the London Hospital'', 1754<br />
''A sermon preached before the Society corresponding with Incorporated Society in Dublin'', 1757<br />
''Nine sermons preached in the parish of St. James, Westminster'', 1758, 1771<br />
''The recommendation of William Smith, A.M.'', 1759<br />
''An answer to Dr. Mayhew's Observations on the charter and conduct of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts'', 1764<br />
''Fourteen sermons preached on several occasions'', 1766<br />
''A sermon preached in the parish-church of Christ-church'', London, 1766<br />
''Eight charges delivered to the clergy of the dioceses of Oxford and Canterbury'', 1769<br />
''Lectures on the catechism of the Church of England'', 1769, 1770, 1771, 1774, 1777, 1778, 1786, 1789, 1790, 1791, 1794 [Dublin], 1799<br />
''A letter to the Right Honourable Horatio Walpole, Esq; [...] concerning bishops in America'', 1769<br />
''Sermons on several subjects'', 1770<br />
''Eight charges delivered to the clergy of the dioceses of Oxford and Canterbury'', 1770, 1771, 1780, 1790, 1799<br />
''Sermons on several subjects'', 1771, 1772, 1790, 1795<br />
''Five sermons against popery'', 1772 Dublin, 1773 Cork and Dublin
''Six sermons on the liturgy of the Church of England'', 1773, 1784 Cork<br />
''The works of Thomas Secker'', 1775 Dublin, 1792 Edinburgh<br />
''Four discourses on self-examination, on lying, on patience, and on contentment'', 1777<br />
''Nine sermons preached in the parish of St. James, Westminster'', 1780, 1795<br />
''A brief confutation of the errors of the Church of Rome'', 1781, 1785, 1796<br />
''On the relative duties between parents and children, and between masters and servants'', 1787, 1790<br />
''Against evil-speaker, lying, rash vows, swearing, cursing, and perjury'', 1787<br />
''A sermon on confirmation'', 1788, 1790<br />
''Of the Lord's supper'', 1788<br />
''Catechism of the Church of England'', 1789<br />
''Questions extracted from Archbishop Secker's Lectures on the church catechism: for the use of schools and young persons in private families'', 1790<br />
''Instructions given to candidates for orders, after their subscribing the articles'', 1791<br />
''Familiar explanation of the service of confirmation, used by the Church of England, abridged from Archbishop Secker's sermon on confirmation'', 1795<br />
''A sermon on confirmation'', 1795

See also John Sharp, ''[...] Archbishop Sharp's and Archbishop Secker's sermons against perjury and common swearing, with some alterations'', [[Dublin]], 1771

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://archives.lambethpalacelibrary.org.uk/calmview/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=secker Secker papers at Lambeth Palace Library]

{{s-start}}
{{s-rel|en}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Charles Cecil (bishop)|Charles Cecil]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Bishop of Bristol]]|years=1735–1737}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Thomas Gooch]]}}
{{s-bef|before=[[John Potter, Archbishop of Canterbury|John Potter]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Bishop of Oxford]]|years=1737–1758}}
{{s-aft|rows=2|after=[[John Hume (bishop)|John Hume]]}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Joseph Butler]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Dean of St Paul's]]|years=1750–1758}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Matthew Hutton (Archbishop of Canterbury)|Matthew Hutton]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Archbishop of Canterbury]]|years=1758–1768}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Frederick Cornwallis]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{St Paul's Cathedral}}
{{Bishops of Bristol}}
{{Bishops of Oxford}}
{{Archbishops of Canterbury}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Secker, Thomas}}
[[Category:1693 births]]
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[[Category:People from Rushcliffe (district)]]
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[[Category:Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford]]
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